Here’s a quick look at some of the latest smart phones and tablets announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
Mobile maddness
From March 2 to the 5th some of the newest and coolest mobile devices will be on exhibit at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. It’s the biggest mobile event in the world.
BlackBerry has already made numerous announcements such as a new cloud-based BES12, cross-platform enterprise mobile management (EMM) solution and Samsung has provided a quick peek of its latest Samsung S6 and S6 edge smart phones.
Here’s a rundown of the mobile devices being shown off at the event.
Silent Circle – Looking for a secret agent-worthy secure smart phone? Silent Circle might have the number for you. Following up on the Blackphone it unwrapped in MWC 2014, the company served up an enhanced version – Blackphone 2.
Bill Conner, the company’s CEO, calls describes the device as “sexy and safe.”
The comes with a 64-bit octa-core processor, a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel, 5.5 inch screen, 3GB of memory plus expandable microSD storage and a quick-charging 3,020mAH battery. Of course, it comes with Silent Circle’s software that encrypts contacts, voice, text and video chats and conference calls.
(Image from Silent Circle)
Lenovo tablets- Lenovo rolled out three new tablets and two new smart phones.
The company’s TAB 2 A10-70 and TAB 2 A8 are powers by Android while the Ideapad MIIX 300 runs on Windows 8.1.
The TAB 2 A10-70 comes with a 10.1 –inch full HD screen, a MediaTek quad core processor, LTE connectivity, dual band Wi-Fi and an eight megapixel camera. It is priced at US$200.
The TAB 2 A8 is an eight-inch entry level HD tablet priced at $129. It features a dual SIM card slot for voice and LTE for data.
The Ideapad MX 300 is an eight-inch tablet loaded with Microsoft Office applications. It is powered by an Intel Atom processor, comes with 64GB of internal storage, a microSD card reader, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities and dual cameras. It is priced at $149.
Sony Xperia Z4 tablet – Sony’s latest tablet device has a 10.1-inch 2K display and a battery that’s got enough juice for up to 17 hours of video playback. This device runs on Android and is equipped with the ultra-fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core 64-bit processor.
Sony claims the Xperia Z4 is the world’s lightest (389g for Wi-Fi and 393g for the LTE version) and the slimmest (6.1mm) 1o-inch tablet.
The tablet will launch June 2015.
Lumia 640 and 640XL – Microsoft is hoping to win over business users to its low-priced Lumia handsets by offering free one subscription to its cloud office suite Office 365 and throwing in some cloud storage and Skype minutes as well.
Slated for release in April, the five-inch Lumia 640 and slightly larger 5.7-inch Lumia 640 XL will ship with Windows 8.1, with upgrade to Windows 10 available. The phones are available, available in four colours, and priced between US$200 for the 3G versions up to $315 for the LTE versions.
Users can apply their Office 365 subscription to one PC and one tablet, and the software works with iPad, Android and Windows tablet devices.
Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge– Samsung’s premium smart phone lineup features premium materials including Corning Gorilla Glass 4 in an array of jewel tones and metal panels rather than plastic.
On the security front, both models will also come pre-installed with Intel Security’s VirusScan Mobile technology, the first smart phones to come with the solution.
A curved display on both sides is one of the unique features of the Galaxy S6 edge.
Both S6 and S6 edge come with F1.9 lenses and high resolution sensors for the 5MP front camera and 16MP rear facing camera. Both handsets come with Auto Real-time High Dynamic Range, Smart Optical Image Stabilization IR Detect White Balance ensure quality pictures even in less than ideal circumstances, and a new quick launch features takes the user from any screen to taking a shot in 0.7 seconds.
The S6 and S6 edge measure 6.8mm and 7.0 mm thin and weigh 138g and 132g respectively, and are powered by what Samsung claims is the world’s first 64 bit, 14nm mobile processor with a new LPDDR4 memory system and UFS 2.0 flash memory. The 5.1” Quad HD Super AMOLED screen boasts pixel density of 577ppi. Models with 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of storage are available.
